TAG: Communication

Having recently been asked what I do as an “environmental communicator”, I thought I’d pen a few words to help clarify the role for people who might be interested in this fascinating field. Basically, an environmental communicator puts excellent writing and speaking skills to use in the development and delivery of organisational or public-facing communication strategies. There is always a clear objective in our work, for example, we may be asked to develop a complex media campaign or simple communication tool that aims to garner community support to protect local waterways, lush rainforests or threatened ecosystems. We might be asked… read more

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa The audience is king. Whether we like it or not, as environmental and sustainability communicators, we have a duty to serve the one true god – our target audience. Whether we want to raise awareness about international trade in endangered species, or attract new members to our NGO; whether we want to engage people in a weekend permaculture blitz, or widen our Transition Towns… read more

Climate change activists were on a high five years ago. 2006 and 2007 might well go down in history as the golden-years of public support for action on climate change. According to various surveys at that time, environmental issues topped the list of many people’s concerns. Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth had hit screens world-wide. And equally widespread was agreement amongst scientists that climate change was real. But the climate change ‘high’ was short-lived. With the global financial crisis of 2008, popular interest in rising sea temperatures and extreme weather events promptly crashed and burned. People stopped worrying about melting ice-caps… read more